The
key elements for effective health and safety management are similar
to those considered in good quality, finance and general business
management. The principles of good and effective management provide a
sound basis for the improvement of health and safety performance. The
key elements involved in a successful health and safety management
system are:

Policy

Organizing

Planning
and Implementing

Measuring
performance

Reviewing
performance

Auditing

Policy

A
clear health and safety policy is essential for business efficiency
and continuous improvement throughout the operation. The
policy should state the decision of the organization in terms of
clear aims, objectives and targets.

Organizing

A
well-defined organization is an essential component of a positive
health and safety culture. An effective organization will be noted
for good staff involvement and participation, high quality
communications, the promotion of competency, and the empowerment and
commitment of all employees to make informed contributions.

Planning
and implementing

An
effective health and safety plan involves the setting and
implementation of performance standards, targets and procedures. The
plan is based on risk assessment methods in order to set priorities
and objectives for the effective control or elimination hazards and
the reduction of risks. Measuring success requires the establishment
of practical plans and performance targets against which achievements
can be identified.

Measuring
performance

Include
both active and reactive monitoring to see the effectivity of the
health and safety management system. Active monitoring involves
looking at the premises, the people, procedures and systems. Reactive
monitoring discovers through investigation of accidents and incidents
why controls have failed. Measure the organization against its own
long term goals and objectives is also important.

Reviewing
performance

The
results of monitoring should be systematically reviewed to evaluate
the performance of the management system against the objectives and
targets established by the health and safety policy. Comparisons
should be made with internal performance indicators and if it is
possible with external performance indicators of similar
organizations.

The
occurrence of any accident will cause both direct and indirect costs.
It is important that all of these costs are taken into account when
the full cost of an accident is calculated. Different studies shown
that indirect costs or hidden costs could be more than 30 times
greater than direct costs of an accident. In other words, the direct
costs of an accident or disease represent the tip of the iceberg when
compared to the overall costs.

Direct
costs

These
are costs that are directly related to the accident and may be
insured or uninsured.

Insured
direct costs, normally include:

claims
on employers and public liability insurance

damage
to buildings, equipment or vehicles

any
attributable production and/or general business loss.

Uninsured
direct costs, normally include:

fines
resulting from prosecution by the enforcement authority

sick
pay

some
damage to product, equipment, vehicles or process not directly
attributable to the accident (e.g. caused by replacement staff)

increases
in insurance premiums resulting from the accident

any
compensation not covered by the insurance policy due to an excess
agreed between the employer and the insurance company

legal
representation following any compensation claim.

Indirect
costs

Indirect
costs are costs which may not be directly attributable to the
accident but may result from a series of accidents.

Insured
indirect costs, typically include:

a
cumulative business loss

product
or process liability claims

recruitment
of certain replacement staff.

Uninsured
indirect costs, can include:

loss
of goodwill and a poor corporate image

accident
investigation time and any subsequent remedial action required

production
delays

extra
overtime payments

lost
time for other employees, who attend to the needs of the injured
person

the
recruitment and training of most replacement staff

additional
administration time incurred

lower
employee morale possibly leading to reduced productivity

Some
of the items mentioned above, such as business loss, may be
uninsurable or too prohibitively because of the big amount of money
required.

Some
basic and powerful definitions related to occupational health and
safety are the following:

Health

Related
to the protection of the bodies and minds of people from illness
resulting from the materials, processes or procedures used in the
workplace.

Safety

Related to the
protection of people from physical injury. The borderline between
health and safety is ill-defined and the two words are normally used
together to indicate concern for the physical and mental well-being
of the individual at the place of work.

Welfare

Related
to the provision of facilities to maintain the health and well-being
of individuals at the workplace. Welfare facilities include washing
and sanitation arrangements, the provision of drinking water,
heating, lighting, eating and rest rooms. First aid arrangements are
also considered as welfare facilities.

Occupational or
work-related ill-health

Is concerned with those
illnesses or physical and mental disorders that are either caused or
triggered by workplace activities. Such conditions may be induced by
the particular work activity of the individual or by activities of
others in the workplace. The time interval between exposure and the
onset of the illness may be short or long.

Environmental
protection

Related
to the arrangements to cover those activities in the workplace which
affect the environment and, possibly, the health and safety of
employees and others.

Accident

Defined
as any unplanned event that results in injury or ill health of
people, or damage or loss to property, plant, materials or the
environment or a loss of a business opportunity.

Near miss

Is any incident that
could have resulted in an accident.

Dangerous occurrence

It’s
a near miss which could have led to serious injury or loss of life.

Hazard and risk

A hazard is the
potential of a substance, activity or process to cause harm. Hazards
take many forms including, for example, chemicals, electricity and
working from a ladder.

A
risk is the likelihood of a substance, activity or process to cause
harm. A risk can be reduced and the hazard controlled by good
management.

The difference
between hazard and risk

It
is very important to distinguish between a hazard and a risk – the
two terms are often confused and activities such as construction work
are called high risk when they are high hazard. Although the hazard
will continue to be high, the risks will be reduced when controls are
implemented.

The residual risk

The level of risk
remaining when controls have been adopted is known as the residual
risk. There should only be high residual risk where there is poor
health and safety management and inadequate control measures.

Occupational health and safety is relevant in all branches of industry,
business and commerce including traditional industries, information technology
companies, care homes, schools, universities, leisure facilities and offices.

Occupational health and safety affects all aspects of work, that’s why high
hazard manufacturing plant requires many different specialists, such as
engineers (industrial, electrical, mechanical and civil), lawyers, medical
doctors and nurses, trainers, work planners and supervisors, may be required to
assist the professional health and safety practitioner in order to ensure that
there are satisfactory health and safety standards.

Generally, there are many obstacles in the process of achieve good
health and safety standards. The pressure of production or performance targets,
financial constraints and the complexity of the organization are typical
examples of such obstacles. However, there are powerful incentives for
organizations to strive for high health and safety standards. These incentives
are moral, legal and economic.

The corporate
responsibility and the relation with occupational health and safety

Corporate responsibility, a term used extensively in our days, covers a
wide range of issues. It includes the effects that an organization’s business
has on the environment, human rights and common welfare. Health and safety in
the workplace is an important corporate responsibility issue.

One
definition of corporate responsibility

Corporate responsibility has various definitions, however, broadly
speaking it covers the ways in which organizations manage their core business
to add social, environmental and economic value in order to produce a positive, sustainable impact on both society and the business
itself. Terms such as corporate social responsibility and socially responsible
business refer to this concept.

In terms of corporate responsibility, organizations must
work in order to:

improve management systems to reduce
injuries and ill health

demonstrate the importance of health and
safety issues at board level

report publicly on health and safety
issues within their organization, including their performance against targets.

Effective management of health and safety:

is vital to employee well-being

has a role to play in enhancing the
reputation of businesses and helping them achieve high-performance teams

The industrialization
process has brought a large number of problems; one of them is related to
industrial accidents. With advances in industrial processes, new type of
dangers to life, limb and health are being increasingly introduced. Everyday
employees are injured in factories due to accidents. The accidents may be
caused as a result on any kind of unsafe activity, or act in their part or
chance occurrences, or as a result of some unsafe working conditions or unsafe
act of employees themselves, or defective plant or shop layout. The pain and
suffering of the injured as well as the emotional loss to the victims of the
accidents causing permanent disabilities are impossible to be summed up and
evaluated.

What’s the definition of
accident?

The most agreed definition
of accident is “It is an unplanned and uncontrolled event which causes or is
likely to cause an injury”.

Types of accidents in
industry

Accidents in industry can
be classified using different criteria. Specific classifications are shown in
the next lines.

According to causes of
events

Machine accidents

Machines are responsible
for a large number of accidents in an industry. Depending on the way harm is
caused, accidents from machines can be classified into the following groups:

Contact: physical
contact of the body with any moving part of a machine;

Impact: parts
of the body are violently hit by moving parts of machines;

Traps: parts
of the body coming between the moving parts which mostly lead to crushing of
parts of body trapped;

Ejection of particles: parts
projected at high velocity from the machine, which causes serious injury when
they hit the parts of the moving body.

Non machine accidents

In this type we include:

Fall of persons which can
be due to

Tripping over obstacles on
ground

Slipping due to oily or
greasy substances

Running inside the shop,
sudden fear or excitement

Fall from a height which
can be due to

Lack of firm foot hold or
unsafe postures

Working on a machine at a
height

Leaning from ladder to
reach a distant object

Strike against the objects

Pushes by other persons on
the slop

According to length of
recovery

Lost time accidents:
lost time accidents are those in which worker loses a day or shift in which
accident occurred. These require payment of compensation to employee to
employer.

Home-case accidents:
in this type of accidents, worker loses the remainder of shift or turn on which
the accident has occurred.

First aid cases:
in these, workers receive first aid attention at plant hospital and then
returns to their job.

According to nature of
injury

Fatal accidents:
in which the worker or more are killed.

Permanent disablement:
which incapacitate an employee and makes it impossible for him to engage in any
work, which was capable of performing at the time of the accident.

Temporary disablement:
this reduces the earning capacity of an individual in the employment.

According to Bestratén (1999), safety at work is
"the set of techniques and procedures that are designed to
eliminate or reduce the risk of accidents."Therefore, safety
at work is concerned with addressing a number of hazards that affect
industrial accidents, such as:

Electrical hazards;

Lack
of mechanisms of protection against moving parts of machinery,
equipment and tools;

Falls of heavy objects;

Poor
conditions of order and cleanliness in the workplace;

Fire
Hazards

To achieve safety at work, we should develop preventive
actions that fall within both general and specific rules, such as:

The mission and vision of the company;

The safety policies;

Procedures at work;

Staff training;

Incorporation of
safety devices on machines, equipment and facilities.

Industrial
hygiene

According to Hernandez and Marti (1989), industrial
hygiene is the discipline that aims the prevention of occupational
diseases by controlling chemical, physical or biological agents in
the working environment.

The (chemical, physical or biological) agents
mentioned have effect in the workplace; not only directly for workers
who perform a particular task, but also for people from other areas
that are part of that environment. Moreover, the presence of these
agents also affects the external environment of the company like
nearby businesses, nearby communities and in general the soil, air
and water.

In order to reduce occupational risks of emerging
pollutants, three objectives are established:

Applied
in an enterprise, a sector of economic activity or the economy as a
whole, productivity may be defined as an output and input relation.

The
term productivity can be used to asses or measure the extent to which
a certain output can be extracted from a given input. This may
appears simple enough in cases where both the output and the input
are tangible and can be easily measured; however, in cases where
intangibles are introduced measure of productivity can be more
difficult.

Calculation
of productivity

Productivity
can be calculated as follows:

Productivity
and industrial engineering in goods production

In
the case of goods production, the objective is the manufacturing to a
better cost, through the raw material, with productivity of the
primary resources of production: Materials, human resources and
machines. It's on these, where the action of industrial engineers
should address their efforts. Increasing productivity indexes and
reducing production costs, are fundamental tasks of an industrial
engineer.